Data generated by, and used by, computers are often stored in file systems. File system designs have evolved over approximately the last two decades from server-centric models (that can be thought of as local file systems) to storage-centric models (that can be thought of as networked file systems).
Stand-alone personal computers exemplify a server-centric model—storage has resided on the personal computer itself, initially using hard disk storage, and more recently, optical storage. As local area networks (“LANs”) became popular, networked computers could store and share data on a so-called file server on the LAN. Storage associated with a given file server is commonly referred to as server attached storage (“SAS”). Storage could be increased by adding disk space to a file server. SASs are expandable internally and there is no transparent data sharing between file servers. Further, with SASs throughput is governed by the speed of a fixed number of busses internal to the file server. Accordingly, SASs also exemplify a server-centric model.
As networks have become more common, and as network speed and reliability increased, network attached storage (“NAS”) has become popular. NASs are easy to install and each NAS, individually, is relatively easy to maintain. In a NAS, a file system on the server is accessible from a client via a network file system protocol like NFS or CIFS.
Network file systems like NFS and CIFS are layered protocols that allow a client to request a particular file from a pre-designated server. The client's operating system translates a file access request to the NFS or DFS format and forwards it to the server. The server processes the request and in turn translates it to a local file system call that accesses the information on magnetic disks or other storage media. Using this technology, a file system can expand to the limits of an NAS machine. Typically no more than a few NAS units and no more than a few file systems are administered and maintained. In this regard, NASs can be thought of as a server-centric file system model.
Storage area networks (SANs) (and clustered file systems) exemplify a storage-centric file system model. SANs provide a simple technology for managing a cluster or group of disk-storage units, effectively pooling such units. SANs use a front-end system, that can be a NAS or a traditional server. SANs are (i) easy to expand, (ii) permit centralized management and administration of the pool of disk storage units, and (iii) allow the pool of disk storage units to be shared among a set of front-end server systems. Moreover, SANs enable various data protection/availability functions such as multi-unit mirroring with failover for example. SANs, however, are expensive and while they permit space to be shared among front-end server systems, they do not permit multiple SANs environments to use the same file system. Thus, although SANs pool storage, they basically behave as a server-centric file system. That is, a SAN behaves like a fancy (e.g., with advanced data protection and availability functions) disk drive on a system. Also, various incompatible versions of SANs have emerged.